Horror and Fantasy writer

An Author’s Rather Unique Experience in Pokeman Go

Pokeman, a game released when I was 25. I never thought I’d get sucked into the gaming sensation, but… I caved. So much of the game seemed interesting. I had been aware of the cartoon show and movies, but I was never a faithful follower. It was simply aimed at an age group a bit younger than I was. Didn’t stop me from catching bits and pieces of episodes but I was in no way an “Oh my God! Gotta catch ’em all!” guy. Still, this game sucked me in and today I had the most amazing type of experience.

My friend Tony had come and picked up me, my wife, and our nephew. We went to.a local Pokestop location with two very close Pokestops. Our plan had been to double lure them because there was an overlap of the two areas and it seemed to draw more Pokemon than normal.

Well, someone was already there with one lure active. We pulled beside them and threw down ours. It was time to go a huntin’! Did really well there but this really isn’t about the hunt… it’s about the gym located there.

I had helped reinforce the gym the day before. It’s a small gym, level three, but I’m in there damn it! At one point I get out and the guy in the truck besides us rolls down his window. I said, “Hello” and so did he. I asked him what team he was on. He told me Team Valor, my team. Come to find out, he was the other guy helping me defend the gym.

So there I was, actually side by side with my gym defending ally. As we’re talking, someone takes the gym from us. This it when it dawns on me, that car parked the side of the building just took our gym.

Knowing this, I just had to walk over and say hello. I actually got to get eye to eye with the person I was battling with over the gym. I walk up, make sure she sees me, and waves. She rolls down her window, I couldn’t help myself, I said, “Stop beating down my gym!” in a voice that let her know I was being friendly.

So I was there, eye to eye with my enemy and actually there with the very ally I was defending the gym with. What were the odds? I know there is talk of adding player vs player… if they do, I hope they add an option that if you’re in the area, you can watch duels, like you were in an arena watching. When someone is attacking your gym, they should let you view the ongoing battle. This game has tremendous opportunities to have you get to know your allies and make, what we’ll hope will be, friendly rivals.

This is an amazing concept. Sure you’ve typed in a game’s chat to other people. You may have even voicechatted against someone or with someone as you tackled a mission or PVP’d, but this game allows you to be face to face and side by side with enemies and foes.

All I’m hoping, that people continue to be more polite in person and we don’t see “that one certain asshole who I can’t stand from that game” type people start appearing. Let’s make this a chance to reach out and get to know knew people. The options are endless. How along until we here about the first “I met my wife at a Pokestop’ story shows up in the news? Let’s hope it’s a lot sooner than we hear about something stupid happening.

So today, I got to actually look into the eye of, talk to, interact with, friend and foe in a video game I play on my phone. Remarkable.